I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to portable electronic devices that are sealed to prevent unauthorized tampering with components disposed within the device housing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel system and method for detecting if an unauthorized person has accessed or attempted to access components disposed within the housing of a portable electronic device.
II. Description of the Related Art
Some portable electronic devices such as secure mobile telephones are disposed within a housing that should not be opened by persons other than authorized service personnel. In order to maintain the security of such devices, it would be desirable to have a system that could be inexpensively implemented, and that could be used to determine whether an unauthorized person had attempted to gain access to the interior of the device by, for example, attempting to unscrew a fastener used to hold the housing together. The implementation of such a system would be useful not only for detecting unauthorized access attempts to the device housing, but also for deterring such unauthorized activities from occurring in the first place.